England legend Emily Scarratt excited for Ilona Maher's PWR arrival and lays out goals for Women's Rugby World Cup

Yesterday at 04:14 AM

With rugby superstar Ilona Maher getting ever closer to making her PWR debut for Bristol Bears, there has been a sense of intrigue about just how much of an impact she is going to have on the league and the women's game in England as a whole. 

Somebody who she is going to have to face is Loughborough Lightning and Red Roses star Emily Scarratt, who was crucial in winning England their last World Cup in 2014, having scored the most points in that tournament as well as the winner in the final. 

Also a pundit at TNT Sports and a host of her own podcast, Scarratt has many parallels to Maher in terms of being more than a rugby player. 

Speaking to Ruck about her initial thoughts on the move, excitement was the overriding emotion for Emily. 

"It’s really exciting, I think certainly for the league. Obviously for Bristol but certainly for the league and our game in this country heading into a World Cup year, bringing somebody of that sort of profile over here is amazing. 
 

"Hopefully we see her out there on the field, but certainly I think even without her being out on the field, she’s already causing quite a stir in terms of the ticket sales and the shirts and all that sort of stuff, which is exactly the reason they would have tried really hard to get her here. So, yeah, pretty exciting all-round." 

It is often overlooked just how good of a rugby player Maher is, and Scarratt spoke about her impact on the pitch and the position she foresees her playing. 

"I think certainly for Dave (Ward) and Sione Fukofuka, the American head coach, that’s going to be driven by those guys in terms of potentially if Sione sees her as part of his plans into 2025, obviously that would be great if the sides she’s playing for good facilitate the position that that he sees her playing. 

"I think she would fit lots of positions, given her physical profile and obviously her rugby ability and skillset.  

"I do think I’d probably put her on the wing
just with the amount of time that she has as well, I think slotting into a wing position is potentially a bit easier.  

"And obviously you get a bit of freedom as well to roam dependent on the systems that you play. But I think that that could really suit her. 
And obviously the way Bristol plays as well, they move the ball a lot, they give their wingers a lot of ball." 

Scarratt is someone who knows what it is like to do plenty of things outside of rugby and be involved in the media, which is like Maher. She talked about the impact of having other parts to life than just sport and the benefits that it has had on her. 

"I think it gives you a really good balance. 
I think it means that you’re not entirely consumed by what it is you’re doing on the rugby field, which is really refreshing. 

"I think it’s good from a mental health point of view just to have that switch off time and have focuses in other directions.  

"I can imagine her workload and her other things would be a lot more and a lot bigger than most of anything that I’ve done. 
But I do think it’s nice.  

"It’s refreshing and I also wonder whether her coming to Bristol will, in a completely other country, whether that will increase." 

England host the 2025 Rugby World Cup, this paired with the recent arrival of the biggest star in rugby to the country has created a potentially perfect storm, in which women's rugby could boom in the next year. 

It is yet another thing that the Red Roses star is excited about. 

"Heading into the World Cup next year with aspirations to fill out Twickenham for a final like that. It’s just never something I ever imagined would be possible. So that is super exciting. 

"You look at the Lionesses a few years ago in the Euros and what impact that had. As a nation we really get behind successful teams, but also things that are going on in the country at the time. And I think hopefully both of those things are going to be true.  

"I think it’s obviously building on the success that that the Red Roses have had over the last four World Cup cycles from the last time we won one in 2014. 
 

"The momentum has grown, the interest has grown, the appetite has grown. I’m really excited, cautiously excited about what the World Cup’s going to bring. Obviously, it’s still such a long way away, but all the signs and the ticket sales suggest it’s going to be amazing. 

"I think no England player will say that we’re not going into that World Cup, not wanting to win it." 
 

TNT Sports is the home of Premiership Women's Rugby, with live coverage of over 20 matches during the 2024/25 season. Find out more by visiting the discovery+ website.

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